LANGUAGES ONLINE.

Any readers interested in pidgins, creoles, or mixed languages (one of those things is not like the others!) will want to know that the data for the Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Languages, APiCS, is finally online and publicly browsable. Think of it as WALS for pidgins and creoles, basically – lots of pretty maps, with the nice bonus that language-internal variation in features like word order can be represented proportionally by a pie graph instead of having to choose a single value per language.

Wikitongues has been on the go since 2012, but I heard about it just recently. It’s a project aimed at documenting linguistic diversity and exploring identity, in the form of short videos of people speaking different languages and dialects – about 50 at the time of writing.

Nice idea, but at least when I visited the site many of the videos were by non-native speakers or people who learned the language as kids but mainly speak English now, and frankly if I go to a site like that I’m looking for videos made by native speakers, not people who want to show off a language they don’t know perfectly. Also, as Stan says, “Complete multilingual transcripts (or subtitles) would be a welcome addition.”

Comments

Well, I’m going to be recording a video as a native speaker of Old Fart Eastern American English next week at a recording studio by Union Square. I’ve also offered to do a dramatic reading of a little bit of the “Pig and Pepper” chapter of Alice in Wonderland in Lojban.

And you can support my book habit without even spending money on me by following my Amazon links to do your shopping (if, of course, you like shopping on Amazon); I get a small percentage of every dollar spent while someone is following my referral links, and every month I get a gift certificate that allows me to buy a few books (or, if someone has bought a big-ticket item, even more). You will not only get your purchases, you will get my blessings and a karmic boost!

Favorite rave review, by Teju Cole:
"Evidence that the internet is not as idiotic as it often looks. This site is called Language Hat and it deals with many issues of a linguistic flavor. It's a beacon of attentiveness and crisp thinking, and an excellent substitute for the daily news."

From "commonbeauty"

(Cole's blog circa 2003)

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